Page 13 of The Spirit of Love

Sam stares at me intently. “Here’s the thing. All that matters to me is this. You. Right now. In this moment. You’re wonderful. You’re warm, and bright, and lovely.”

We roll onto the sand, me atop him, straddling his broad chest. “That’s a big thing with you, isn’t it?”

“What is?”

I can feel him between my legs, so it’s an effort to stay on track. “ Now . The now, as a way of life.”

“Now.” He nods and draws me to him. We kiss again. “What else is there?”

“You’re right,” I say, in momentary, blissful surrender. His hands are on my hips, tugging down my cutoffs, and then reaching inside the waist of my underwear until his strong, soft hand is right where I need it.

“I can’t imagine anything but now,” I gasp as his fingers work miracles. “Sam.”

“Say my name again.”

“ Sam .”

“Ask me to do anything for you. I will.”

“Kiss me.”

“Too easy.” But he kisses me in a way that makes it feel anything but easy. “Ask me for more. Ask me to move mountains. Ask me to come back from the dead.”

“Alternately, you could just fuck me until we both explode.”

“You’re right,” he says, laying me down in his arms on the blanket. “Good idea. I’ll move mountains tomorrow.”

He stares into my eyes, his gaze as open as the sky. He’s propped up on his forearms, holding my hands in his. “Are you ready?”

“I can’t wait,” I breathe and use my hips to guide him in.

When Sam fills me, the pleasure is so intense, I cry out with abandon.

“You’re so sexy when you scream,” he says into my neck.

I scream again. I can’t seem to help it. With every thrust Sam makes, the intensity of my pleasure, our connection, builds to the point that it’s impossible to not scream.

“God! Yes! You feel incredible!” I hear my words.

They’re what I feel, but I can’t believe I’m saying them.

I’m being louder and more honest than I’ve ever been before while having sex.

Part of it’s the isolated setting, but ninety-five percent of it is Sam.

His hands. His hips. His heat. I let loose every ecstatic noise I never knew I had within me.

I don’t keep anything inside. I arch my back and look toward the sky.

Toward God and whatever else is out there or in here.

I feel as close to everything as breathing.

Sam’s hands in my hair draw my face back down to his. I think he’s going to kiss me, but instead he says, gazing deep into my eyes, his lips grazing mine as he speaks, “I would drop everything for this. For you.”

Afterward, we lie on the blanket, his fingers tracing patterns on my arm.

“I have to be honest,” Sam says. “I’ve never come so hard in my entire life.”

“Me, neither,” I say. “I can still feel it. Like it’s ringing in my bones.”

“I think I’m paralyzed.”

I run my hand over his groin and feel a twitch. “There’s still some movement. The prognosis is positive.”

“Thank you, Doctor,” he says and kisses the top of my head. “Do you want to sleep out here or hike back up to the cabin? There are benefits to both.”

“Lay them out for me.”

“If we stay here, we don’t have to break this spell, and I’ll be ready to go again in another ten minutes.”

“Seriously?”

He tosses his head. “Eight to ten minutes, roughly.”

“Damn.” I laugh. “And if we go?”

He rolls to face me and brushes my hair out of my eyes. Am I imagining the shadow crossing his expression?

“This may be a benefit only to me,” he says, “but if we sleep in my bed, I’ll be able to picture you there every night after you leave.”

“Can you picture me there if we have morning sex in your bed?”

He thinks a moment and then nods. “I believe I can.”

“Then let’s not break the spell just yet.”

He nestles closer, and a moment later, Sam’s asleep, snoring softly and adorably.

In twelve hours , my brain starts to go, and I stop it. Not yet. Not yet. Be here, in this now, with this gently sleeping wondrous man . This is the last night with him you’re going to get.

The adder stone around my neck showed it all—my busy life, which I’ll return to.

I never looked through the stone at Sam. We were interrupted.

Quietly I reach for it, trying not to wake him as I sit up. I gaze at him and then I hold up the stone and wait for magic. Insight.

I wait.

He looks the same. No secret, second life.

I wonder if he needs to be awake for it to work.

And then I almost laugh at how seriously I’m taking this stone’s magical powers.

Because of course Sam made up what he said, about the life he glimpsed through the stone.

He only said things based on what I’d already told him. It isn’t magic, just storytelling.

I am in the business of making up stories, but for some reason, looking at Sam sleeping, my mind is completely blank. Either he fucked all the narrative creativity out of me tonight…or else he’s perfect, here, just as he is, and I don’t need to picture him anywhere else.

I want to though. I want to know more about him. What else he does when I’m not here. What his plans are for Thanksgiving, and what kind of car he’ll get to replace his Jeep.

He stirs and the soles of our feet touch, and it feels intoxicating. In his sleep, his lips tick up in a smile. I smile and take his hand. His eyes flutter open and he reaches for me, pulling me back into his arms.

“Where are you?” he asks.

“I’m here.”

“But you’re also somewhere else.” His fingers trace my brows, the curve of my cheek. “Your thoughts. Where are they? Work?”

“Maybe.”

“What else?” he asks, sleepily. “Stuff you need to do back home? Get your air-conditioning serviced? Buy the dog food? Make a date to break up with your boyfriend now that you’ve reached nirvana with a master sex god?”

I nudge him. “No boyfriend. Dog passed away last year. And it’s my water heater that needs servicing. But I wasn’t thinking about that.”

“Good. Were you thinking about sexual transcendence?”

“Closer.” I smile. “That and…I do have to leave tomorrow.”

Sam is quiet for a moment. I start to think he might have fallen back asleep, but finally he says, very softly, “I’m into this, Fenny. If you ever start to wonder, if you ever question whether tonight was possibly this good? Whether I like you—a lot? Don’t. Be as sure as I am right now.”

“I’ll try.”

“There is no try.”

“So you have seen a movie.”

He kisses me one more time, and then, at last, with the universe’s most powerful orgasm still ringing in all of our bones, Sam and I fall asleep.